Suspected Rapist Arrested; Another Suspect May Be Out There

ST. LOUIS, MO. (KTVI) – At least one of two rapes in the Bevo Mill neighborhood of south St. Louis now appears solved, but residents are asking questions about a second, very similar attack, which police say is still an open case.

Timothy Gilbert was charged Sunday in the December 15, 2012 kidnapping and rape of a woman on Delor Street in the south city neighborhood. He’s accused of entering her home through an unlocked door, putting a knife to her throat as he took her outside, then spitting on her and raping her.

“I’m very pleased that they found the guy on Delor,” Walsh Street resident Beth Cunningham said. “That makes me very happy, but it’s very scary that the other guy may be running around still.”

She’s referring to a strikingly similar attack that happened on her street, a block away, within 24 hours of the rape on Delor.

At the time, police believed the two cases were related. The methodology was similar, with the intruder entering through an unlocked door and using a knife. Further, the description in both cases, of a white male in his late teens or twenties, matches the description of Gilbert.

But Monday police said the Walsh St. case was “still being investigated.” Asked if Gilbert was a suspect, a spokesman’s email simply said, “no determination yet.”

Further, a woman identifying herself as the suspect’s mother said Monday the rape charges against Timothy Gilbert involve an accusation by a girl he knows.

“It is a little unnerving,” Cunningham said, hoping for answers about the case on her block. “I don’t know. I’d like to find that out actually.”

Others in the area are happy to focus on the arrest that’s already been made, vowing Gilbert won’t slip through any judicial cracks.

“We will sign petitions and send them to the judge and make sure that he gets prosecuted correctly,” Nancy Lehmkuhl of the Newport Heights Neighborhood Association said. “A lot of times they get slapped on the hand and don’t get the sentences they should be getting.”